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Show HN: Auto Dismiss Mac OS "Allow <app> to find devices on local networks?"

https://github.com/johncassil/dontallow
30•johncassil•55m ago
This popup has been a constant gripe of mine for years. I almost NEVER want to allow this permission and there is no system setting to disable it globally and prevent the popup from interrupting your typing, etc. This tiny swift app I built will autoclose it in 1/4th of a second and leave behind a little notification that it did so. Would love to hear feedback!

Comments

poszlem•44m ago
Yes. Thank you. This is such a simple thing that should be a part of the operating system, and in the ideal world it would be. This is the perfect problem for the LLM to solve, because the reason it does't exist in the system is a decision by some stupid PM at Apple, and not an actual system constraint.
klodolph•39m ago
It’s just a choice of which key to use. I don’t think it was some decision made with this intent, I think it is just the unexpected result of a decision.
johncassil•14m ago
I maintain that Steve Jobs would have taken the engineers to task over this poor UX.
browningstreet•43m ago
Thanks. It’s macOS' own cookie banner and dick bar.

It’s weird they haven’t just made this a menu flag…

LoganDark•40m ago
"One Swift file" except it's two Swift files
hmokiguess•26m ago
One bunch of Swift
johncassil•16m ago
oof, it was originally one, forgot about the refactor lol
HughParry•36m ago
side note but what is the consensus on figuring out whether small brew packages like this one are malicious?

I'm sure this one probably isn't, but I have no clue how I would know whether it is without reviewing the source code myself (or pointing an agent at it etc)

sigmoid10•33m ago
Basically the question for any executable code (or even just any data) that you let on your machine and which did not go through independent vetting processes. The question you need to ask is if the benefit (getting rid of an annoying popup) is worth the risk of a distribution method that is trivial to compromise.
hmokiguess•27m ago
so we are back at choosing where we draw the line and you picked this one to get us going
johncassil•15m ago
Good question -- I have been pointing claude at repos for security reviews before I install stuff now for exactly this reason.
poszlem•10m ago
That's why I like small, open source projects like this one. I don't have to figure out if it's malicious. I just fork it, then ask claude to review the code, then run my own fork.
john_strinlai•36m ago
this is exactly the type of app that makes me excited to see what the future will hold with ai. any regular joe or jane can now realistically solve many of their small annoyances with little effort and no experience.

(not saying this is ai or not, i have no idea, just speaking generally)

scosman•31m ago
Yes! I got annoyed that I had to manually close old finder/preview windows, so I OSSd an app that closes any stale window. There have been commercial apps in this space a decade, but none worked how I wanted (per window not per app, config each app separately). So I just made it with Claude using some spare tokens at the end of the week. You can customize anything to be the way you like it now.

https://github.com/scosman/Squeegee

johncassil•12m ago
This particular item never been a problem for me because I incessantly close everything after I am done with it but it is super cool that we can ask AI to dig into the weeds for us now and fix our annoyances -- or even search repos online where someone else had and fixed this problem
eastbound•12m ago
The first app I will do is Spotlight. Its insistence on finding everything across the universe except applications is tiring.

We're getting free from our software!

nottorp•22m ago
Hmm another gripe of mine. Mac OS's vnc brings a popup that steals your focus when someone connects to the machine while you're physically in front of it.

I know it's well intentioned but I have this weird setup where I am almost constantly keeping vnc on from my laptop to my desktop. And the mbpro randomly wakes up to do whatever, even when not used, which reactivates the vnc connection, which pops up a warning on my desktop, which steals my focus.

Anyone knows a way to disable that? Possibly just for connections from a specific other machine.

Edit: as for this app, I think the OS only asks once for a new app? I don't remember being asked a second time even when denying it.

I could also whine a bit about "this app wants to access files on a removable volume" since my desktop has a thunderbolt ssd plugged in for extra space...

InsideOutSanta•14m ago
Can I have the opposite, a tool that automatically clicks on "allow"? I installed the app, it's fine.
johncassil•6m ago
I assume that is a quick fork and publish, but seems scary lol
mostlysimilar•5m ago
Sometimes you need to use a particular piece of software but don't want all of its functionality. You're allowed to want some but not all.

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